


Ghosts

by sunaddicted



Category: DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Comfort, Drabble, Dreams and Nightmares, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, M/M, Penguins, Surreal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-15 13:23:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9236975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunaddicted/pseuds/sunaddicted
Summary: So, it hadn't been a nightmare.The dream, though, had been thoroughly unsettling and had left Bruce with a racing heart and thin veil of sweat freezing on his burning skin.





	

_Ghosts_

Saying that it had been a nightmare to wake him up, it wouldn't have been quite true and Bruce liked things to be neat and precise; at least when he was talking to himself and he didn't have to put up with his chaotic daily life - what with having to juggle work, a playboy persona and fatherhood - and the less pleasant variety of chaos brought by the night and the seemingly endless supply of murderous weirdos Gotham seemed to breed.

So, it hadn't been a nightmare.

The dream, though, had been thoroughly unsettling and had left Bruce with a racing heart and thin veil of sweat freezing on his burning skin.

"Bruce, are you okay?" Clark's voice was sleepy and muffled by the pillow half-stuck to his face, only a bright blue eye was free to peer at his lover.

Bruce shook his head, not trusting himself to open his mouth yet: a scream was uncomfortably lodged in the cage of his throat, threatening to spill out as soon as the tight seal of his lips was broken.

The mad beating of Bruce's heart helped Clark to clear his head from the sugary fuzziness of sleep and he sat up on the mattress, fingers gently caressing Bruce's profile in the darkness "It's already, you're safe"

"I was safe too in the dream" Bruce murmured back, voice thinner than he would have liked and filled with confusion: Bruce himself didn't understand his own reaction, which seemed disproportionate if one considered the images still lingering at the surface of his consciousness.

Mother and Alfred bent closely together over a pie fresh from the oven, the scent of candied apples wafting up in the air.

His father's hand flying gracefully over some paperwork, reading glasses slowly slipping down his nose.

The radio turned on the news during lunch, a manicured hand carding through his hair while mother and father discussed a charity ball organisation.

Beard prickling his cheek when his father kissed his fair and delicate skin, prompting a disgruntled huff from his younger self.

Mother curled around him in bed a time she couldn't sleep when father had to work the graveyard shift, her hair half-spilled on his pillow.

Flashes of a life almost forgotten. It had been the richness of details and the realisation upon waking up that nothing of that had been real that had made his heartbeat pick up in its rate, leaving him in a profoundly disquieted state.

"Once I dreamed about my parents morphing into penguins: I lived normally, helped Da with chores around the farm and dried the plates Ma passed me after washing them up" Clark smirked in the dark, a little chuckle escaping his mouth "It was surreal, not scary - even funny, in a way: still, I woke up terrified and went for a long flight to clear up my head"

"How do you always know what are the right things to say ?" Bruce sighed, muscles finally unlocking so that he was able to turn on his side and curl in Clark's chest; it was warm and smelt heavenly, as comforting as the scent of home when you entered it after a long time.

Clark tucked the blankets closer to Bruce's frame, happy to hear that his heart rate was going back down to more reasonable frequencies "It's a gift"

After a humming noise of acknowledgement, silence fell over them and Bruce basked in the gentle caresses Clark was drawing all over his back; they had more success in calming him than any comforting words might have had and Bruce was grateful that his lover cared enough about him to have learned what drew the best response from him - it was a luck he wasn't keen on examining too closely, afraid that it would vanish just like the reality his dream had pictured so vividly for him.

He had a question, though "Penguins?"

"Under the Kansas sun" Clark confirmed sheepishly, kissing Bruce's brow "Now. Go back to sleep, my love"

**Author's Note:**

> I had an unsettling dream - it must have been punishment for sleeping the afternoon away - so, someone else had to suffer too: Bruce was my victim.


End file.
